So I have 3 more pages to share from the art journal swap that I’m participating in.

First is Mindy’s journal:

Mindy’s theme was ‘art’. The skirt was done using molding paste and a stencil. I love this quote.

Next is Amy’s journal:

Her theme is ‘Dreams and Treasures’. The background was done using scrapbook paper that was all different maps. It’s been covered in red oxide liquid acrylic and some rust liquid acrylic. I created the saying using masking fluid before I painted the pages.

And Beth’s journal:

Her theme was ‘love’. I had issues with coming up with how I wanted to interrupt this. I tried a couple of different things, in fact there are a couple layers under this that you can’t even see. I started off by using a stamp that looks like text, then created some shapes in the corners with a stencil. The I tried using a different stencil and did NOT like the result. That’s when I created the heart and Love with masking fluid and covered in a pearl blue paint. Then I put down the quote using letter stickers, then stamped over the top with a bronze fluid acrylic. Once it was dry, I pulled off the stickers and masking fluid.

I can’t remember right now how many layers this canvas has on it. We’re probably around 10 layers and the last few I’ve kept this same basic idea. Why? Because it speaks to me. I will let it sit a few days and just see if I want to go add more. The pic is not great because the lighting was off in the room. I’ll have to take a better picture outside in natural light.

When we last left the canvases, I had put on the first two layers – first warm and then cool. I followed up with a third layer of warm colors. Then we could add black and white if we wanted. And I followed that up by adding some fluid acrylics in cool colors (teal, green gold, and cerulean blue).

With all the techniques that Flora has us use – foam brushes, spraying water, stamping, scratching… the thing I like the best is using my fingers. I just feel more connected to the canvas and the paint (as silly as that might sound). I might have to pick up a couple more canvases this weekend.

The second layer for the paintings was done using cool colors. I found I had a lot more choices in my paints for cool colors (blues and greens) than I did for the warm colors. Flora’s intuitive painting process takes some getting used to. At this point we’re still just putting down paint, seeing hwat kind of marks we can make with it, not worrying about if things are “pretty” or if we’re making “something”.

For the second canvas, I used the dripping paint and water method. I didn’t have much in the way of warm colors among the few fluid acrylics I had so I had to just do what I could. I liked the method though I think I got a little crazy with the water.

That part in the upper left corner that almost looks like a stencil was just a wadded up paper towel that I was using to sop up standing water on the canvas.

Yesterday, I started Flora Bowley’s online course Bloom True. Our first assignment was to take one of our canvases (at least 24 x 24 – mine is 24 x 30) and start with some warm colors. She showed us two techniques for our first layer – fluid acrylics and water or smearing the paint on with our hands. Oh, you know, I went with smearing the paint on!

I used four different colors – red, orange, and 2 shades of yellow. I love the flow of the paint and how I left it thick in some places. I actually like it just the way it is, but this will be just the first layer and likely all of this will be covered before the painting is finished.

I’ve been using one of my journals mostly to try different techniques and just having fun. I haven’t really written on any pages and don’t know if I will. Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see.

These are the first two pages in the journal. Yes, they’re kind of ugly. I was basically using these pages as a place to put extra paint left at the end of a session. I doubt these will stay like this. They’ll progress and I can’t wait to see what they turn into.

These pages are from one of the classes in last year’s 21 Secrets. It was about mandalas. I don’t totally love this page, but it was fun to design.

The page on the left just has a layer of some yellow and orange paint. On the right, this page was also from a class in last year’s 21 Secrets. The paint was applied with a gift card and there is also a layer of molding paste on the page to give it texture. The center section does not have texture and leaves you with a place to write if you’re inclined.

This is my favorite spread in the art journal.

Here’s a closer look at the right side. The technique is achieved by painting two different colors of acrylic paint on the page and then placing a stencil over it. Then you take a baby wipe (yes, a baby wipe) and remove the paint through the stencil. I love the misty, hazy look of the page. In the original demo where I saw this done, you started with putting gesso on the page before painting the acrylics. I did not do that here and I’m still very happy with how it looks.

This is just a repeated stencil that I moved around the page till it was covered. I used a makeup sponge to apply the paint.

Here I tried to repeat the stencil technique. But I altered it by putting down a layer of copper acrylic, let that dry, put down a layer of clear gesso, and then the two other colors on top. And then the baby wipe again. Unfortunately I don’t think I let the gesso dry enough and the baby wipe pulled up the copper paint as well. But I still like it.

This was just me playing with some watercolor crayons and a stamp one night.

This is from one of this year’s 21 Secret classes. I wish I could remember the name of the class and who was teaching it, but I don’t. I’ll have to go look that up. This is just the beginning of the page, I haven’t gone back to add additional layers. The paint was applied with a palette knife and then we were supposed to look for shapes in the paint and start outlining them.